Trade Show Social Media Marketing Costs

Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and others have become the primary source of information, entertainment, and even education for billions of users. Last year, about 4.27 billion people were active social media users globally. According to projections, the number is expected to rise to about 6 billion in five years.

With the average daily time spent on social media is about two and a half hours, it makes perfect sense to use this medium for marketing purposes. The people are there, the reach is global, and it certainly costs less than other media types.

Trade Show social media marketing costs depend on several factors, such as budget, goal, and platform. In the following paragraphs, we will dig deeper into those factors and give you an idea of how much to spend on social media marketing. Let’s begin!

How Much to Spend On Trade Show Social Media Marketing?

Illustrated Social Media map

93% of companies that advertise use social media one way or the other. However, you may pour money into social media marketing without achieving the desired results if you’re not strategic. 

The amount you spend on trade show social media marketing depends on your revenue. Depending on your target audience, you are expected to spend 2-10% of your income on advertising. For some companies, this may be much, and for others, this may be too little. The social media marketing budget may vary depending on the company’s resources, but the average daily amount is between $200 and $350 daily.

On average, companies spend between $4,000 to $7,000 monthly on social media advertising. Companies with bigger budgets spend more than that, with some spending well above $20,000 a month on advertising.

About a third of all consumers credit social media as a significant influence in shaping their purchasing habits. Marketers must decide if trade show social media marketing works for them, and then identify which platform is best for their campaign and how much they need to spend on the rest. Each social media platform has different costs per click.

You should spend more on the platform where you need to build more presence; for example, a product with massive popularity on Facebook but minimal presence on Twitter may have to budget more for Twitter than on Facebook.

DIY Social Media Marketing vs. Outsourcing

Man recorning trade show for social media

For many companies, outsourcing social media marketing is the way to go because of the advantages. But DIY should also be considered for corporations who can’t afford to hire a large team.

But first, let’s look at the differences between outsourcing social media marketing and doing it yourself.

Outsourcing offers immediate access to the best tools.

When you outsource social media marketing, you immediately have access to the best tools professional marketers use. Being a relatively new field, only professionals know the best secrets and most effective means to stay on top of the game. When companies hire professionals to handle trade show social media marketing, they deploy the latest devices, software, and tools.

Outsourcing eliminates the cost required for training of staff

Because social media marketing is still evolving, there is a chance that your marketing team would need training and retraining on how to handle trade show social media marketing. You can eliminate all these additional costs by simply outsourcing social media marketing.

Outsourcing allows you to focus on other things.

For efficiency, it is better to outsource social media marketing so you can focus on other forms of marketing simultaneously. Moreover, trade show social media marketing is time-consuming as you may have to monitor trends and respond to inquiries in real-time. But outsourcing is efficient as you pay for the services of professionals.

DIY is cheaper in the long run.

Different between DIY and outsourcing trade show social media marketing

Outsourcing is not cheap. What outsourcing gives in efficiency, it takes in cost. The average price for outsourcing a single social media marketing campaign is between $1000 and $7000 per month. If you employ an agency to run your social media marketing campaign, you’d be spending in that region monthly. If you do it yourself, you’ll only spend on advertising costs.

DIY allows you to incorporate the company’s culture into your social media marketing strategy.

Sometimes, outsourcing your social media campaign makes it difficult to incorporate your company’s values into your strategy fully. This won’t be a problem when you do it yourself. Professional media managers know how to navigate, but they don’t always take your company’s culture into consideration.

Overall, it is more efficient to outsource your social media marketing campaign, but it is cheaper to do it yourself. Companies with a vast budget won’t have a problem paying social media managers.

Still, there’s always a way of finding more affordable management if you can’t afford an entire social media marketing team. Moreover, we’ll look at the different costs of different social media platforms.

Best Social Media to Advertise a Trade Show

Different social media advertise

There are different social media platforms, but not all may be suited for your business or a trade show. Facebook remains the largest and the most popular platform, with well over 2.8 billion users. This is not to take anything away from other popular platforms like Instagram (also owned by Facebook), YouTube, Tiktok, Pinterest, and Twitter.

All of them have their significant strengths and weaknesses. You want to look at the demographic information of your target audience, the primary users of a social media platform, and the cost before you make a decision. Let’s look at them and consider how much it costs to use them.

Facebook

93% of social media marketers use Facebook, making it the biggest online platform for social media marketing. Facebook is popular among a broad demographic base, so it is ideal for almost all kinds of businesses.

The cost of Facebook ads varies, depending on the advertising model you prefer. The cost-per-click CPC model costs $0.97 (per click) and $7.19 per 1,000 impressions (cost-per-thousand impressions cost ). Other models include cost-per-like – $1.07 and cost-per-download, which costs $5.47.

Your budget should determine how much you spend on Facebook ads. If you budget too little, your reach may be limited. If you budget $200 for a CPC model, you may find 200 likes too small for the kind of reach you need.

Instagram

Instagram posts for trade show social media marketing

78% of social media marketers advertise on Instagram. It is the second most significant platform for social media marketing campaigns. Instagram has a younger fanbase than Facebook and prioritizes flashy photos and graphics.

The cost of advertising on Instagram is similar to that of Facebook. It costs less than $2 for a per-click rate, although this also depends on the bidding model. For every 1000 impressions, it costs $6.70. Instagram also charges per engagement. It costs around $0.03 per engagement.

Again, the reach depends on the amount budgeted for the campaign.

Twitter

Twitter has a reputation for being a microblog noted for its breaking news. It is a very business-like platform and popular for social media marketing. At least 48% of social media marketers use Twitter for their campaigns. Twitter’s user base is also relatively young, although more people would read the information on Twitter than on Instagram.

Twitter posts can travel as far as you’re willing to pay for, and these posts could be videos, pictures, or graphics. It can promote a tweet, a trend, or an account. To encourage a Twitter post it costs between $0.05 and $2 per action, while it costs $2-$4 for every follower gained on a promoted account. For promoted trends, it costs $200,000 per day. 

Businesses who want to manage their accounts may boost it, and when they have enough followers, they can run their trade show social media marketing campaigns themselves.

TikTok

Tiktok has taken the world by storm and will eat well into YouTube’s market share. Because it is relatively new compared to other platforms, it still has a low percentage of advertising by social media marketers.

But that is expected to rise sharply following the platform’s popularity with many young users. Tiktok adverts are similar to their native posts and often contain links that may bring customers to the online shop of the marketer.

A TikTok ad campaign costs $0.50 per 1,000 views and  $0.02 per click. TikTok also requires that you spend a minimum of $500 for a paid ads campaign. The more you spend, the greater your reach.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn trade show Advertise

LinkedIn is a professional social media platform ideal for social media marketers operating in the B2B marketplace. At least 60% of social media marketers use LinkedIn one way or the other as the largest professional network. LinkedIn has carved a niche in B2B marketing, as no other social media platform influences workplaces.

It charges per click, per 1,000 impressions, and per send. The cost per click is $5.30, while it costs $7 per 1000 impressions. For campaigns that send InMail ads on behalf of clients, LinkedIn ads cost $0.8 per send.

Pinterest

Pinterest shares many similarities with Instagram and contains many photos, although it focuses more on lifestyle issues like lifestyle, weddings, kitchens, and decorations. Most users on Pinterest are women (25 years old or older), so if that’s your target audience, Pinterest might be the place for your ads. 

Pinterest ads cost between $2.00 to $5.00 per thousand impressions and between $0.10 and $1.50 per post engagement.

Conclusion

Advertising on social media is one of the most innovative ways of reaching customers at the lowest cost per thousand. Although the trade show social media marketing channel you use and the target audience would determine how much it costs, it is still the best means of getting your message across. 

Reference articles:

Resources: